


A Day In The Snakes Nest

by LiulfrLokison



Series: The Snake Handler [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: A day around HYDRA, Emotions, Human Winter Soldier, Tech Team, What Was I Thinking?, keeping secrets, meme king
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 23:51:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8033842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiulfrLokison/pseuds/LiulfrLokison
Summary: The Snakes Nest was a well known term among the IT technicians of HYDRA.Every techie wanted to be in it, but the leader had high standards that nearly nobody could meet.It also didn’t help that they were the Winter Soldier’s handler.And nobody wanted to be the target of an angry assassin.





	A Day In The Snakes Nest

**Author's Note:**

> _Second installment in the Snake Handler series, taking place about a week after "Questionable Drinks And Death Threats"._  
>  It started out as being a normal day at HYDRA for Dante and Winter, and then sort of spiraled down into this thing . . .  
> Yeah, it wasn't what I set out to write, but I think I like this result better.

The Snakes Nest was a well known term among the IT technicians of HYDRA, and a wide spread rumour amongst the finest hackers on the internet. 

There was even a forum for it. 

All the low ranking minions of HYDRA thought it to be a rumour, but the higher up on the totem pole you got, the more information about it you would hear. 

Everyone in the IT department knew about it, as the Snakes Nest was comprised of elite hackers from around the world. Only the higher ups knew how they had been recruited, some had been hunted down and forced to join, some had come willingly, and some had joined up for the money. 

But the greatest mystery about the Snakes Nest was its leader. 

The leader of the Snakes Nest was the highly elusive V1P3R, the number one hacker in the world. 

No one knew who they were and how they did it, but the hacker was able to get into any system and leave without a trace. The only reason people knew which systems they got into was because the hacker blatantly posted it on their website, which many hackers were subscribed to. No one was able to track the hacker down, and HYDRA had been dying to sink their fangs into the mysterious hacker. 

And they got their wish, but not in the way they wanted it. 

V1P3R appeared one day out of the blue, waltzing nonchalantly into their main headquarters like they were ordering a coffee and demanded to join HYDRA.

Everything changed that day. 

And not just for the IT department. 

-o0o-

Walter Dawkins loved his job.

Sure, standing guard outside a door for twelve hours a day was exhausting, but he wasn’t standing guard outside any ordinary room. 

He was standing guard outside the Snakes Nest. 

He was one of the select few among the security team that got to guard the Snakes Nest, V1P3R was very choosy with those he interacted with. 

However, the man that was his leader (once he had been assigned to the IT team, they all deferred to V1P3R as their superior officer), had been down ever since he and the Winter Soldier had come back from a mission. V1P3R was a techie, not a mission operative, so something must have happened during it because the man had been off for the past few days. 

But, it looked liked V1P3R was over it already, waltzing down the hallway in his usual red trench coat. 

Dante Pendragon was a peculiar man for his age (there was a betting pool on how old he was, Walter had $50 bucks down for 30 years old), towering over most people at his height of 6’5. It didn’t help that the man liked to wear combat boots all the time, giving him at least another two inches of height. His appearance was also peculiar, waist long hair the colour of ivory (which was due to there being a slight albino gene in his DNA, according to his medical reports). When he was at work, he wore most of it up in a stylish bun on the top of his head, held up with a long wooden ornamental pin that had four short strings of pearl beads dangling from the end. Two long strands fell over his ears and dangled down to his shoulders, framing his androgynous chin. 

His skin was a pale olive tone, which spoke that he spent most of his time indoors but spent some time outside in the sun. His build was lean and possessed some muscle, accented by his clothes (which were mostly skin tight but slightly baggy on his frame). 

He always wore gloves on his hands, only the left hand was fingerless, revealing long thin fingers that would be suited for a pianist rather than a computer geek. 

But it was his eyes that were the most interesting. 

His left eye was a bright sky blue, with green specks throughout the iris. His right eye though, was a crimson red and both of his pupils were slightly elongated, with a thin golden ring bordering them. He did possess a scar on his face though, it started above his eyebrow and streaked down his face, slightly jagged underneath his eye and stopped halfway down his cheek.

No one knew how he got it and the few that asked were given vague misleading answers, although they could confirm it was made by someone else. 

Walter certainly didn’t want to run into the person that gave Dante that scar, when the man blinked they could see the scar was also on the skin of his eyelid. 

“Morning Walt. How’s things?” Dante smiled as he flashed his ID card against the card key lock, a small beep filling the silence as it unlocked. “Same old, same old. Guarding you guys is boring, any attacks are on the computer. Don’t get much action out here.” Walter complained, but from the grin Dante gave him, the taller man knew he was joking. “Well, get ready for another boring day.” Dante began to slip through the door, but paused and poked his head back round the door. 

“You feel like Subways or McDonald’s today? I can’t decide.” 

This was another great thing about Dante. He bought them lunch. Dante had made a specific credit card for the employees under his command so that they could have lunch instead of having to snack on the food from the vending machines. 

“Subways. I feel like Pork Riblet.” 

And he always extended it to the guards. 

“I’ll let the others know.” Dante gave him a cheery wave before striding into the room beyond that would be a techie’s wet dream. 

“I BROUGHT COFFEE!” 

There were several cheers at this exclamation, Walter hadn’t even seen Dante holding any coffee. 

The guy was super sneaky. 

Nathan Cortell, the other guard he had shifts with popped out of the room to give him a coffee, and as usual had a tuft of grey and black fur around his shoulders. 

“Mornin’ Ceba.” 

The tuft of fur gave a happy purr when Walter scratched under her fluffy chin. 

Also to note, one other perk of guarding the Snakes Nest. 

Dante brought his cats to work.

The man was the male equivalent of a crazy cat lady, so far he had eleven cats and always brought at least three to work. It was great for their stress levels. Today he had brought Ceba (a female seal point Himalayan cat), Apollo (a male silver Maine Coon) and Wesley (a male American Bobtail). 

And so the day went on as it normally did. 

-o0o-

Nathan enjoyed his job just the same as Walter did. 

Dante was great to work under, the man was chill and never put pressure on them. If someone had a problem, he was there in an instant to help out. He never fully did the work for them, but taught them how to handle the problem if it turned up again, Dante was the calm and sagely teacher they all wished they had back in high school. 

Nathan liked the guy especially because of the random memes he pulled out of nowhere. 

One time Nathan had teasingly joked that Winter, (the nickname the Winter Soldier got around the Snakes Nest) was Dante’s muscle. Dante had immediately spun around on his heels, threw his arms out wide and shouted “COME AT ME BRO!” 

They all learnt that day that Dante’s muscles weren’t just for show, as well as dubbing him the ‘meme king’. It soon became a running joke around HYDRA and no one knew what to think of it. 

But the one thing that had them all in awe was the influence Dante had on the Winter Soldier. 

When Winter walked into the room, they could all see he was cold and blank. However, the instant Dante skipped over to him and bustled him inside, those icy blue eyes were filled with warmth and affection, and where someone else’s hands would have caused him to flinch violently, Winter practically melted into Dante’s touch, like a man who had been touch – starved as a child. 

It had been four years since Dante had become Winter’s handler, and a month after that he had created the Snakes Nest. Winter had come a long way from being HYDRA’s cold blooded assassin, and was slowly becoming human again. Everyone in the Snakes Nest felt uncomfortable with methods that had been used to keep the Winter Soldier compliant, one reason why Dante had accepted them in the first place. 

They were one large happy family, and there was nothing that would ever make them leave it. 

-o0o-

“We’re having Subways today. Write down what you want and who wants to go get it with me?” 

Several hands went up, as everyone was itching to get out of their seats. It was 1PM and they all wanted some fresh air. 

Closing his eyes and raising his hand up into the air, Dante pointed at random. 

“I choose you!” 

Opening his eyes, he found his finger pointing at Heath. 

Heath Gaskell was one of his favourite little minions. The 24 year old was a mousey little guy, 5’8 with a thin frame, but for what he lacked in muscle, he made up for in wit. The brunette had adorably large hazel eyes, and his black round framed glasses didn’t help to hide them. Dante loved to dote on the younger man, who always tried to hide his face with his shoulder long hair but had begrudgingly started to tie it back in a ponytail. 

8U88L3T3chy was his hacker name, due to his love of bubble wrap (because who didn’t love popping those?). 

Dante was momentarily distracted when Wesley leaned on his shoulders to bat at the string of beads dangling from the pin with one of his paws. While he absentmindedly scratched under Wesley’s chin, everyone wrote down their orders on the Lunch Pad (Walter had named it that after the fifth time they used it). 

Once everyone wrote down what they wanted, Heath began to order it online (thank the lord for online ordering), and Dante found his eyes falling upon Winter. 

Winter was still hesitant around Dante ever since after the gala mission, he didn’t mean to discourage Winter, but he hadn’t been ready to give the answer to that question. 

Dante had his own reasons for wanting to protect Tony, but now wasn’t the time to reveal that secret to anyone. 

Not even to Winter. 

Wesley scrambled off Dante’s shoulders and padded over to Winter, jumping up onto the couch and settling in Winter’s lap. Wesley was the friendliest out of all his cats, and had taken a liking to Winter the moment he met the brainwashed assassin. Ceba was the first that Winter had met, but right now the Himalayan cat was napping in the sun, ears twitching lightly when someone petted her. 

“Winter.” 

The assassin glanced up immediately, his fingers that were buried in Wesley’s fur came to a halt. 

“What do you require?”

Dante winced, Winter was starting to revert back to being compliant, had he really hurt Winter that badly?

Sighing, Dante sat down next to Winter and placed a hand on the brunette’s hair. Winter went ramrod stiff, but began to relax once Dante simply petted his head. 

“I’m not mad at you Winter, I’m just not ready to tell you why I gave you that order. Alright?” Winter must have heard the weariness in his tone, blue eyes widening with concern. It warmed Dante’s heart that Winter was able to express those simple emotions once again. 

“I, understand.” Winter murmured, and he looked ready to bolt. 

Before the assassin had to chance to do so, Dante grabbed his metal arm and forced Winter to lie down. Winter blinked in confusion, glancing up out of the corner of his eye from where his head lay on Dante’s lap. 

“Sleep you idiot. If Rumlow’s been bothering you again, I’ll give him a talking to.” 

Rumlow had been one of the few handlers assigned to Winter that had actually survived, and wasn’t happy that Dante was Winter’s only handler. He sometimes ambushed Winter in the hallways when Dante wasn’t around, and got quite frustrated when Winter didn’t comply with the agent’s orders. 

If Dante caught Rumlow one more time . . .

He couldn’t be blamed for what would happen. 

-o0o-

“All done, time to . . .” Heath glanced up from his computer screen and paused when he saw Dante. 

Their leader was sitting on the napping couch (it had been dubbed that because when you sat on it, you just couldn’t help but fall asleep), and it had done its work. 

Dante was fast asleep, with Winter’s head lying in his lap, the assassin was fighting off the grasp of sleep, but with Dante’s fingers combing through his hair absentmindedly, it wasn’t long before they could hear Winter’s soft snoring. 

“I’ll go with you Heath. Boss Man needs his rest.” Reno muttered quietly, already pulling on his coat. Nodding quickly, Heath pulled on his own jacket and the two left the building. 

Reno Osler was the youngest on the team, he had just turned 19 last month. Reno simply adored Dante, as for his 19 birthday their leader had taken Reno out to a convention. 

The one thing all of them knew about Reno was that the teenager was a Final Fantasy Seven fanatic, and his favourite character was the red – headed Turk, Reno Sinclair. His first hacking job was to change his real name to Reno Osler, no one knew what his old name used to be. 

Dante knew all their little quirks, and as a birthday treat had decided to take Reno out to a convention that he normally wouldn’t be able to attend because he didn’t have the time. The teenager lived by himself and the pay from HYDRA was the only reason he still had an apartment to live in. 

After the convention, Dante had taken Reno to a tattoo and hair stylist, and when the teen emerged from the shop, his hair was bright red and he had two new tattoos under his eyes. Dante had overheard a conversation between Heath, Jim and Reno, about how the teen wanted to get the tattoos but didn’t know a shop that was cheap enough while still being sanitary. 

Reno had actually cried in joy when Dante brought him to the tattoo parlor, and it was a gift to see a beautiful smile on Dante’s face when the teen hugged him. Even though Dante smiled a lot, they knew when those smiles were false. There wasn’t a spark in Dante’s eyes, cold and jaded from what HYDRA had forced them to do. 

Everyone in the Snakes Nest loved their leader, and would do anything to see the man smile. 

And if making Winter human again was the way to see that smile again, they would do everything in their power to make it so. 

-o0o-

**Author's Note:**

> It just felt right to write this one, sort of giving insight on what Dante thinks and what the Snakes Nest think. I wanted to give an idea of who Dante was, and what he meant to them. The Snakes Nest just love Dante because he isn't just their team leader, he's more than that. He's like a mentor or a father to them, someone they can go to when they have trouble or need to simply talk. And Dante loves doting on them, he wants to keep them safe from the worst of HYDRA, he wants to protect them from the horrors of their world. He's been where they've been, because he knows what it is to be a hacker and the circumstances that lead them to taking that path. 
> 
> (Getting quite emotional right now). 
> 
> So, I'm not sure what I'll be writing for the next installment, so if you've got a prompt, let me know on my tumblr. mojishinprocastinatorextreme.tumblr.com


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